Thursday, January 20 2011 18:40
Price "fever" in Armenia not to step back in 2011
ArmInfo. The oligarchic system in Armenia, corruptness and high monopolization of economy against the unfavorable international background will lead to long-lasting price growth in 2011, former head of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Bagrat Asatryan said at today's press conference in Yerevan. He pointed out that in 2010 the CBA exhausted "all possible and illegal methods of fight against inflation", therefore in 2011 the power and, first of all, the government should launch their tools of fight against inflation. According to Asatryan, the government has not been fighting inflation so far, having fully shifted this task to the CBA, the monetary tools of which are limited and have low electiveness. The former head of the CBA recalled that by inflation Armenia occupies the second position among the CIS countries and is in the top ten in the world.
In order to fight inflation, Bagrat Asatryan suggests launching the tools, which are applied all over the civilized world but which are unknown to Armenian parliamentarians for some reasons. In particular, the matter concerns reduction of the tax burden and customs duties.
Asatryan thinks that migration of the population is even more dangerous for Armenia than inflation. "The migration outflow from Armenia as a result of the authorities' policy is constantly growing", he said. He added that in 2010 about 70 thsd citizens left the country.
To recall, in 2010 (January-December) the official level of inflation in Armenia made up 9,4%. In the food market (alcohol and tobacco inclusive) the inflation was fixed at 14%, in the nonfood market - 4,6%. The tariffs for services grew by 4,2%. The average monthly price growth in Jan-Dec 2010 made up 0,8%.
According to the same official data, a total of 24 thsd families left Armenia in 2010.